Floating booms with inflatable buoyancy chambers of various kinds have been proposed over many years. For example, the booms shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,563,036 and 5,022,785 are inflated by separate compressed gas cylinders inflating each of a series of hollow flotation chambers, or by chemical reactants enclosed in separate flexible sealed containers inside the inflatable chambers and separated by a rupturable partition, which may be caused to burst by passing the boom structure endwise through pinch rolls, mixing the reactants and generating gas pressures sufficient to inflate the flotation chambers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,989 shows another oil containment boom incorporating inflatable chambers arrayed along its upper edge with separate inflation valves permitting compressed gas inflation of each of the inflation chambers in turn.